Friday 29th January 2010, at 7am the intrepid divers assembled at Manchester International Airport to check in, then on to passport control and security check. Mike goes through and is methodically searched and goes on to enjoy the duty free shop when his phone rings “Hi I don’t seem to have a ticket”. There will be no prizes for guessing who was on the phone. Mike had to be escorted back to the check in desk to sort the situation out and then proceed back through security once again. The replacement ticket got Malcolm the best seat on the plane (next to the leggy blonde).
The flight was pleasant with the web cam under the fuselage providing the highlight of the in-flight entertainment (always comforting to know the undercarriage works). We arrived at the Sultan Bey Hotel, had a good meal, then a rece party set off to find the Sand Bar open, it never seemed to close!!! Even though our rep. Lisa, negotiated a 20% discount off the hotel beer the Sand Bar seemed to have other attractions.
The diving was much the same as last year except for the sea conditions being rougher(poor Carol). The fact that Dive Tribe’s leader, Rob, made some pitiful excuses about availability of boats which ended up with 27 divers on board when we had 16 last year. Thankfully Dive Tribe has since been taken over by Emperor Divers.
In my opinion one of the best dives was the “Mickey Mouse dive”. Due to the weather we went to Abu Kalawa. The briefing said it was a shallow Mickey Mouse dive, we got it wrong and went the wrong way, great dive! Saw large Eagle Ray,and magnificent coral. Moral: sometimes ignore the Red Sea briefing!!
The other fantastic dive was the wreck of a minesweeper, victim of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Hit by an Israeli jet, you could see the blast hole etc. very interesting (ask David Jones!!)
On another dive John and Alan saw a manta ray (first sighting of the year in the N. Red Sea) of course I had the camera and missed it.
The last day’s diving had to be cancelled due to the Presidents wife visiting Hurghada so the area was closed to shipping. We eventually decided to go for a Quad Safari, great fun, 3hrs biking through the desert, visited a Bedouin camp. Wyn really enjoyed himself with sheep and quad bikes on the itinerary.
Mike Duke
p.s. Forthcoming attractions:- Southern Red Sea, Hamata, 18th November 2010. (see notice board)
